>> ukraine prepares to naught ih rate its new president. hello, i'm fel felicity bar beir amount you're watching al jazeera. afghanistan candidate vows to continue campaigning, after are surviving a double bomb blast. plus: >> i'm nazareen najiri.

i'll be asking whether there's political change in the air. >> hello, we begin in ukraine where the new president is about to be sworn in. petro poroshenko is about to take his oath of office in parliament. let's show you the latest picture from the ukrainian capitol kyiv. once poroshenko has been sworn in the leaders of his government will present themselves and the flag of the country will be hoisted. he will begin almost immediately of with the huge task of trying

to stabilize eastern ukraine. as we wait for the president elect to arrive, and take office, what are we comchg this- expecting in this ceremony. >> he will be sworn in in front of the rada, the ukrainian parliament. we might hear him make his speech of what his plans will be, coming hours, coming days. and he may make his way over to st. sofia square, where he will be meeting members of the armed forces where he will be recognized as commander in chief of the ukrainian are armed forces. because the ukrainians are at war. whether this is a battle as many in kyiv see it between ukraine and pro-russian forces or

russian forces in the east of the country. so his immediate tip steps wille to tackle at a problem. that is really the flavor of that event that is taking place here. somber, celebrations limited because of the state of crisis that the country's inity moment. >> what sort ever man is petro poroshenko? a billionaire, he owns his own chocolate company, that's how he made his money but what kind of lead-in does he have politically? >> he's very interested. he's been a minister in successive governments, a minister, foreign minister, he has made his millions, he is a billiobillionaire, forbes has h. and he's the chocolates king because of ownership ever a

chocolate company here in ukraine. he is believed to be a unifier. he is from odessa. there is question whether he even speaks russian at home with his family. he has a mandate to govern because of the fact that he scored over 50% of the vote not just in the west of the country but also in the russian-speaking eastern parts. despite the fact that certain cities like doughnuts, it was very difficult for people to get out and vote with that military conflict going on. so the hope is he is somehow going to be able to unite pooh a divided ukraine at the moment. with that growing divide between europe and the west and vladimir

putin's russian, putin has been very much opposed to ukraine's integration with nato. whether petro poroshenko can now reach out, can actually sit down even to talks with vladimir putin in the kremlin. he had those talks ton site of the normandy meeting, on his way here to have talks with the ukrainian government. to have talks over the issue in the eastern part of the country. >> that that very brief meeting between putin and poroshenko, and poroshenko was saying that talks between ukraine and russia

could actually begin as soon as sunday. >> that's what i was saying, with this envoy expected to come here. gave a little detail about what was under discussion. there was three key areas that the ukrainians are hoping, they can get some movement on with the russians. first and foremost is for the border to be closed, close the border corporation, let's say, the government allowed armed forces to come this from russia to the ukraine. also seeking to have talks as i said with the envoy and basically they need to work a way forward on this. and also, there is a mandate that russia had a that the

parliament signed earlier, to send russian forces in to protect russian citizens. ukrainians want that mandate cancelled. that will be the first step towards ending this are conflict. there last been some si cynicis, over some of the being proportions of people here that feel that they are at war with russia, that vladimir putin is the commander in chief of the enemy here. they shouldn't be sitting down for talks with him.

>> robin, stay with us, interesting because many leaders have sent words of support, in fact we see joe biden in the audience there. there has been support of petro poroshenko in the west kim vanel, in the east it's very much different, isn't it? >> very much. felicity. there are people that believe that he will bring undercontrol thruppedz r -- through political control, or perhaps whether it's a matter of negotiation with the separatists, we're expecting

mr. poroshenko to lay out his plans of peace in the region, expect it to cover wide range amnesty and giving power to the regions. but there are a great number of people that believe that petro poroshenko is a continuation of the old guard, an o oligarch, ad then there is an issue of should he wish to engage the east, they are increasingly divided among themselves. they're not the only force on the ground. we have seen the vostock battalion, the different armies, to the towns we have been in the region, difficult from that point as well. >> a very complex situation in the east. if we can speak broadly, what

exactly do they need, they have seen their near neighbors annexed to russia. do they want exactly the same? >> well, it's differentlily changed over the past months i've been covering the this conflict. when we first arrived and the separatists first took over the separatist building, at that point there were talks of being completely part of russia, and then we had this referendum, or so-called referendum, donetske people's republic voted in favor of the call for rescission. when you go to the towns, we went near slovyansk and not people who are involved in the armies but people are concerned, they support the separatists, they support these calls but

because they feel like they are basically russian, they feel russian, and they want that to be listened to. and for petro poroshenko to address their various concerns, that their needs are not being addressed. >> all right, kim vanel, reporting from doughnuts, thank you so much, t deed, kim. we just saw petro poroshenko himself arrive, walk up the red carpet into the parliament in kyiv. petro poroshenko, the 48-year-old known as the chocolate tycoon, the billionaire, among his political experience he served as a foreign minister under yulia

tymoshenko. a lot resting on the shoulders of this man, particularly international community, particularly the west giving him their support and they're expecting a lot to come from him, aren't they? >> reporter: there's a lot of weight on his shoulders. he's youthful, he's 48 years old. and felicity, he does have that mandate. there are a lot of people in ukraine who don't feel that he's going to prove anything different. he is cut from the same cloth, the successive.ukrainian leaders. this is the first time that the president has been able to win vote in a first-round election without having to go into a runoff. and so many people here just want things to move forward. they want to draw a line somehow

under all the violence that's been going on. you can look at it another way, though, that now he's going to be invested with the powers of commander in chief. because the conflict may escalate, he may feel he has the position to go in strong. but he's not in favor of this idea of martial law has been posited by some members of the ukrainian government. he's going ohave to tread lightly indeed, having them being under siege by members of the russian government, in donetske and slovyansk. if he is going to keep ukrainian

forces to those battle fields so we'll wait to see how that pans out. >> let's listen in as the president elect prepares to take the oath of office. ♪ ♪ [♪ singing ]

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>> to the president of ukraine according to his statement, the government of ukraine took his powers as a member of parliament. he is not taking part if other activities. not being paid or unpaid work. and not taking part if any activities which will bring him income. petro alexeivich, giving you the oath of office granted by the constitution of ukraine. if you can place your hand on the testament, and sign after

you take the oath of alegionans. the oath of alegionan alegionang place, petro poroshenko, taking the oath of allegian crervetias

and authority of ukraine in the world. the oat of allegiance, used for the first time at inauguration of mr. poroshenko. i ask mr. poroshenko, to sign the document of the oath of

allegiance. >> petro poroshenko signing the oath of allegiance. said i promise to protect the sovereignty of ukraine. that of course a very important oath. >> reporter: that's right, and that's what we've been talking about this morning, the conflict going on in the east of the country. finding its way through an increasingly protracted issue, as my colleague kim was saying. extremely difficult for ukraine what the president is going ohave to deal with is the

economy, how to get ukraine out of its economic stagnation. it's bordering on the best of your knowledge of bankruptcy. it has billions of dollars of debt and somehow he's got to pull it back from the brink. that will require significant loans and assistance from the international community in order to fulfill, in order to seef toe that help ukraine is going ohave to go through painful reforms and go through other painful steps, like wage freezes and price rises even energy price rises in order to start the economy around. and of course, that's going to frustrate large numbers of the electorate. those are the kind of challenges he's got to contend with, at the same time, balancing different needs from different parts of the country. there is a strong feeling there ought to be greater autonomy.

he has to devolve power away from kyiv which for a long time has been very much the center of power in ukraine and give more freedom to regional administrations to handle their own affairs. and the hope is that by doing that, that will if you like relieve some of the pressure that has been built up that is causing this discontent, this bitterness against the administration that has taken power since viktor yanukovych's ouster. this maidan, the crowd is still here to a certain extent, the tent city. there are still people down there on the square who want more changes to take place, who say they won't leave i until thr demands have been filled, until

the corruption has been with abolished in ukraine corruption is a very significance here, a lofty objective that will take years to release. a very difficult issue for president poroshenko, how no work with people who supported him from the very beginning, how now to make this country look like it's functioning again, to get people to start leaving the square behind, to show that things are getting back to normal. because there are lots of ukrainians who feel that there is people on the maidan to step down, to show everybody that there has been a page turned, that there is a new chapter starting for ukraine. one way to do that would be to show initiative and to start to move things from maidan here,

the center of this revolutionary movement that has brought petro poroshenko to pow. back to you. >> robin thanks very much indeed, looks like the ceremonial events are about to close in kyiv as we hear i believe the ukrainian national anthem once more. the new ukrainian president, petro poroshenko, swearing in an allegiance to protect the sovereignty of ukraine. we'll be back if petro poroshenko makes a speech, if he does make a policy speech we'll go back to kyiv and listen what he has to say. let's move on to some other news. afghanistan's presidential front runner is promising to continue on. abdalla abdalla walked away unharmed but six people

including you one of his body guards were killed. from kabul. >> i think a lot of people have become even more determined to defy the taliban and go to the polls. especially in the urban areas where it will i think be more possible to do it. but there are some rural areas, some villages where the taliban have already settled. and i'm sure they will make an effort to -- not oallow people to go to the polls. so we will probably have a mixed reaction, but as far as the determination of the people is concerned, i think people have become sort of very defiant. and it has become almost a civic resistance to defy taliban

threats. so i think we will see a lot of people going to the polls. >> in libya fighting has broken out between supporters of a rogue ex-general. has action he have won some support but libya's interim government says he's an outlaw. from tripoli, stephanie decker reports. >> it started as a small protest for people in tripoli martyr square. and then it escalated. it's not clear who fired on who but this is the first time that these protests have turned violent. they've been taking place over the last few fridays, since hafta launched his protest

against other groups. the man charged with integrating tripoli's military. >> there are people out there, because i present the path to that then we welcome everything they will try odo to foil our efforts. there is no option for libya but to build the police force and the army. all the militias have to disband. >> people tell us it was a massive explosion which could be heard 20 kilometers away. there is nothing left to the car but it did cause major instruction to the street. no one knows who was behind the attack prospect ever since halifa hafta launched his action, outgoing prime minister abdalla alsimi seemed to side with haftar, join the battle

against what he called invisible enemy. tense and unpredictable situation. stephanie decker, al jazeera, tripoli. >> three people have been killed in egypt after trying to clear up a protest in giza. reporters without borders, have written a letter to egypt's incoming president, abdullah fatah al-sisi. they want seven years in jail for peter greste and 15 years for baher mohamed and mohamed fahmy. al jazeera denies the

allegations against them. another al jazeera journalist abdullah al shami has had his court hearing postponed. he has been on hunger strike. don't forget to go to aljazeera.com for the full news. >> the unemployment number is steady at 6.3%. we're taking a look at what is underneath those big numbers on inside story.